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Bullying is bad for your mental health

Tuesday, February 25, 2014 12:05:20 PM Australia/Adelaide

Wolke et al have demonstrated that any role in bullying in childhood increases the risk of experiencing psychotic phenomena in late adolescence. This includes bully-only children, although Wolke et al suggest that the results for this group may not be clear due to the small number of children in this group (approx. 1% of the total N by children’s reports, or 4% by mothers’).

The path analysis demonstrates that whilst the experience of being bullied can interact with depression and psychosis experiences at age 12, and result in psychotic experiences later on in adolescence, there is also a direct effect of childhood victimisation on these later experiences.

This is a strong study: it makes use of a large sample, selected without bias and uses a substantial longitudinal design. There are also multiple assessments with both the child and the mother’s reports taken into account, allowing for a good quantity of quality data. This in turn enables the researchers to differentiate between the different roles a child can have in the bullying interaction and to pick out pre-existing confounding factors (such as behavioural problems).

Wolke et al have demonstrated that being involved in bullying in any role at a young age can increase the risk of having psychotic experiences in adolescence, both through direct action and due to interaction with other symptoms – such as depression – in early adolescence. The finding that victimisation which is chronic and enduring increases this risk even more is unsurprising but important to hold in mind.

from an original article by Emma Cernis

- See more at: http://www.thementalelf.net/populations-and-settings/child-and-adolescent/bullying-is-bad-for-your-mental-health-even-if-you-are-the-bully/#sthash.nIaqFmMR.dpuf